News

2014-02-26

AFRICA/CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC – Work goes on at Bangui university despite chaos

Bangui (Agenzia Fides) – A group of young people at Bangui University, under the guidance of local Jesuit Fathers, continues to keep the doors of the college open despite extreme violence and political disorder which has affected the Central African Republic since last year. According to a report sent to Fides from the Jesuit Generalate, spiralling violence has uprooted more than 935,000 people in many parts of the country, in the capital alone there are some half a million displaced persons. In recent weeks mosques and churches were torched and dead bodies seen abandoned in the streets. From the point of view of safety the situation has seriously deteriorated.
The campus of Bangui University is deserted . Although the CIEE Centre for Information, Education and Counselling run by the Jesuits as part of the Catholic University Centre Centro is unable to reorganise campus activities , the team is ready to start again: " the main office of the Centre has never closed. Work goes ahead but not with the same speed as in normal times ", says CIEE coordinator, Pierre Yéra Boubane, S.J. All through 2013 the CIEE continued to offer at least a minimum service, providing planned seminars for students and courses on education. And even now, surrounded by chaos, CIEE is ready with new initiatives to launch a massive new campaign just as soon as the situation improves . (SL) (Agenzia Fides 26/02/2014)